Dark room of nightmare
by Sjeherazade
Summary: Nancy, Frank and Joe have a new case. A quite horrible case that gives them all nightmares… But everything is not a mystery. One of the three already knows what is happening, too well.
1. Chapter 1

**Dark room of nightmare**

A/N 1: I don't own either Nancy Drew or the Hardy boys.

A/N 2: Unless you can tell me where the incorrect grammar or spelling mistake is. I'll just ignore that comment, I don't have English as my native language and have never pretended to be very good at it and I promise you that all mistakes that I can find myself is already corrected when I publish. I will also ignore it if the word is spelled right in British English but wrong in American English

(Sjeherazade)

**Fools day?**

_It was a warm summer day and the mother in the family decided to take a walk with her two boys 9 and 8 years old. _

_They had walked to the ice cream bar to buy ice cream and outside the building, the younger boy's shoelace made him stumble. He bent down to tie them at the same time as his mother and brother walked inside. _

_Then their mother noticed that he was missing. She ran out again and looked in every direction. He wasn't there. _

_Now the older boy came out too, he knew from his mother's worried face that something was wrong and he wanted to know. When he couldn't see his little brother anywhere he too started looking for him everywhere. Then he discovered his cap in the bushes. He ran over to it and crawled in to the green. His brother wasn't there._

"And that is the full history!" Frank finished his story. He had just got a new case to solve and was sitting around Chet's table, trying to convince him, Biff, Nancy, Callie, George and Iola. His brother Joe hadn't showed up yet, he had been given detention in school and would arrive later.

Suddenly Chet had got enough, he began to laugh and one second later Biff and the girls laughed too. After pulling herself together, Nancy decided to ask one question.

"You mean that the Police have found a child, tied up in a car and she says that she has _not_ been kidnapped…? Frank Hardy, you're nuts!"

"No I'm not. Listen I know how it sounds…"

"It _sounds_ like an April fool's joke!" Biff interrupted him with a sneer.

"It's 6th July!" Frank said and glared back at him. Chet walked over to the wall calendar and looked at it for a while.

"Oh yes! He is right!" then everyone started to laugh again.

"Shut up, haven't we been through crazy things before…"

"Yes" Callie agreed. "But still, you have to agree that this sounds very unreal, I'm sorry, but I think it's some kind of April joke too!" Then Joe came in, muttering.

"Damned humour cleared teachers…" Everyone was still laughing. "What's so funny?!" Biff rose and patted Frank on his back.

"Your big brother here got a strange letter from some police who thought it was time to play a trick on him and he thinks it's real."

"It has the _real_ police's seal on the envelope anyway" Frank muttered.

"Anyway, it says that they have found a girl tied up in a car. She had wounds all over her body and tells everyone that she has _not _has been kidnapped, except from that she refuses to say _anything _to _anyone_. Except for the first time she meets a new person, this time she also says _Dark room of_… Dark room of what? That's what I want to know. I'll say that… Joe?

Joe hadn't laughed at the strange story. His face had turned chalk white and his eyes had lost all their lustre.

"Joe?"

Joe suddenly fell down on the floor, he had fainted …


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the long wait…**

**Chapter ****2**

Everyone starred at Joe anxiously when he opened his eyes and sat up.

"What happened?" He asked.

"You fainted." George explained. "And you didn't seem sick when you arrived so what's wrong?"

"He did seem a little pale when Biff told him about the letter" Nancy began to say, but Joe interrupted her.

"No way! That is only a stupid joke, I'm fine I promise. Excuse me I forgot something in school." And then he ran outside again.

The rest of them just starred at each other. Chet was the first one to speak.

"What in the dark side of the moon was that about?!"

"I don't know" Nancy began, "But isn't the bus stop on the left?" She was right, the bus stop was in the other direction, for some reason Joe had run out in the forest instead. "Frank, I'm sorry! Something is definitely wrong here…" Nancy began, but she just couldn't make herself say the rest she was thinking. It really seemed as Joe had something to do with, what ever it was, or at least that he knew something about it. "I'll call Bess and ask her to look up the car they found that little girl in!" She said instead and walked away before Frank could ask her anything she didn't want to answer.

----

Bess noted the number and hang up the phone, then she logged up for the Internet to search for the owner. And she found it.

"What?!"

----

And about Joe, he had run quite far in the woods when he finally stopped to rest. He tried to get rid of the despair that had finally caught up with him with beating one of the trees with his fist. All that happened was that his hand began to bleed…

----

Bess called Nancy's cell phone. And after their talk Nancy had forgot that Joe Hardy had acted a little strange.

"_The clan of the lit out phoenix_"

"What?"

"The car, it's registered on… that clan."

"Have anyone heard of something called the clan of the lit out phoenix?" They all shook their heads.

"The library?"

Unfortunately the library was about to close when they arrived so they hurried to borrow every book they could find, that they thought could hide some little unimportant clue at all and then they all ended up at Frank's home as it was nearest.

Some hours later Fenton came home and caught sight of the kids who sat in the living room busy whit their work.

"So you have found something to investigate again?" He laughed and walked in to them. Then he caught sight of a book with a golden phoenix on, and then he read some words in the letter that had started everything, and in the same moment he stopped laughing and looked around the room several times.

"Have Joe seen this letter?" He asked deadly seriously, actually he was so serious that he scared all of them. Then Chet replied.

"Yes, and after that he run out in the woods and" Fenton Hardy left the room and before anyone knew he had disappeared in his car. "Ok, now this starts to be a little creepy" Chet continued and turned to his friend. "First you get a letter that seems to be a joke, until Joe sees it and decides to run away. And now the same thing happens again with your father. What's going on? Are both he and Joe involved it something? Because I refuse to believe they are?"

Frank starred down at the table. He really wanted to refuse to believe that too but still there was no other explanation, was it? He rose from the table.

"Can you warn me if dad comes back please?"

"What?" Nancy exclaimed. "Sure ok, this can't be any worse anyway!"

Frank walked up to his father's office and came back with a binder.

"If dad see my with this he will kill me!" He muttered and put it down on the table.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter**** 3**

It had rained twice that evening and Joe was both tired and cold when he heard his father call for him. He stopped a moment and thought about everything once again. He really didn't want to see anyone right now but still if he stayed any longer in the woods he would have a great pneumonia.

After mature consideration he decided that he preferred the pneumonia. Then he would die in a couple of days and then he wouldn't have to care about the Dark room of nightmare anymore.

He ran away from the light. At the same time he heard the car start, his dad had given up. But Joe knew him, he was just pretending to give up to make him come out from the woods and stop hiding. So instead of going back to this place he started to run faster. He had come to a meadow. It was in dark as neither the moon or the stars were up.

But when Joe had run over about half the meadow something lit up the night. When he had got used to the light he could see what it was. His father had drove around in a circle and parked in the middle of the meadow, and turn out all lights that could warn him that he was there.

Joe was too exhausted to run now, he just stood there on the same spot as when he had discovered his father's car, in the middle of the forest in complete darkness. He gasped for air, tired after running the whole day and as he wanted to take in as much cold air as possible to make the sickness as bad as possible he didn't really tried to stop it.

"Do you want to hear the long or the short version Joe?" Joe just shook his head, he hadn't any strength left to speak. "Frank and the others thought that you acted a little strange when you run away from them earlier. They have started to investigate it!"

"You told me it was over!" Joe succeeded to say after a while.

"Did you ever believe this Joe! Had you really expect this phoenix clan to die? You have seen enough the last years to realize this is not possible!" Joe just starred at the ground, he didn't notice that his father walked over to him, suddenly he felt his arms around him and that was all.

Joe didn't try to escape anymore, he was to tired, he hadn't noticed how tired he was before.

"Can we go home now?" Joe thought that the question came from very far away, he could barely hear it. He followed him to the car, not really voluntarily, more like something supernatural had made him walk. Anyway, he didn't try to stop it.

He didn't remember anything of this journey when they arrived. He had seen his friends and his brother in the living room, greeted weakly before he went to bed.

Fenton stayed whit the others, he saw the binder Frank had stolen from his office. According to the dust on it they hadn't opened it yet.

"Maybe you should go home, it's quite late!" He said calmly. Everyone left without a word and Frank was alone with his father. Frank swallowed. When his friends had closed the door he opened his mouth to say something, but as he couldn't figure out what, he gave up.

"I know!" Fenton said, even if Frank hadn't said anything.

"What?"

"This is a very sensitive case, I don't know if you have discovered it yet, but it's one thing you need to know. No matter what you decides to do. In some way… Joe has to solve this!"

"How?"

"I don't know, I just know he has to do it, how he do it is up to him. Now, time to bed!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter ****4 **

Frank walked up to his room and tucked himself to bed, he didn't understand anything. He wished that he had opened the secret binder before his dad had arrived. He didn't even know if it had anything with it to do but when the others mentioned that both his father and brother had acted strange he had remembered it. He hadn't told the others, but he was the only one who was forbidden to read the binder, Joe was not. Actually Frank had heard him ask Joe if he wanted to look in it several times…

----

_Two weeks had passed. The police didn't know anything, mum and dad didn't know anything and the nine years old brother didn't like this at all. In two weeks they had waited for someone to __ask for ransom, it had never happened. Then they had begun to wait for someone to find the body, that hadn't happened either. Finally he had just walked to bed and refused to come up before anything happened. He was quite sure that no one would notice this as everyone was busy trying to find his younger brother. He was wrong. One day his father came in to him and sat down beside him on the bed. _

"_Hey, why don't you come up now and play outside for a while? It's beautiful outside today!" The boy didn't answer so his father continued. _

"_Come on, it's enough if one of you suffer isn't it? Your friends Chet, Toni and Iola are here. They want to see you"_

"_Tell them I'm sick!"_

"_You aren't sick! And by the way, they said that if you didn't come out, they would come in. And I don't think they have any plans to change their minds"…_

_--- _

Frank didn't understand this, why did this memories come to him right now, he had tried his entire childhood to forget it and they didn't talk about this time at home anymore…

---

_Suddenly one day they got the phone call from the police. They had found him… everyone in the family had go__ne to the police station to see Joe again… after five months… but it wasn't Joe they met, it couldn't be. Those empty eyes, it really seemed like he didn't recognized his family. Frank got so scared of this cold eyes that he first forgot how to speak, then he cling to his mother, shivering in his entire body. When he finally dared to look at Joe again he saw that his face was covered with tears… silent, horrible tears… Frank couldn't stand it anymore, he let go of his mother's arm and run out of the room to prevent to look at him, he reminded of a zombie, a hypnotized zombie…_

_--- _

Frank turned over to the other side and tried to force out all of those memories. It had happened for so long time ago.

It didn't help. He didn't know why, this hadn't anything to do with the girl who he had though about the whole day, so why couldn't he stop thinking about it?

After all, no one talked about it anymore…

---

_Some hours later they had found Frank and the family was on their way home. Joe sat in the__ front seat and just stared out through the window on… nothing…he still had the same empty, dead eyes and he didn't say anything. Finally his father couldn't stand this anymore. _

"_How are you?" He asked and tried to stroke his cheek, but Joe flinched. _

"_I'm fine." That was the first time any of them had heard him speak after he had been found. _

"_It doesn't seem so!" His father persisted, but he didn't try to touch Joe again. _

"_I'm fine." Joe said once again… nothing else. Then he began to stare out through the window again._

"_How can you say you you're fine?" Dad roared suddenly. "You have bruises all over your face! And you have been kidnapped for five months! How can you tell me you're fine after all that?!" Joe turned his face to him and answered. _

"_I wasn't kidnapped!" Then he quickly turned to the window again so he wouldn't have to look into anyone's eyes. Fenton stopped the car making the __automobile tyres__ scream. _

"_What exactly do you mean with that?" _

---

"NO!"

Frank sat up in the bed covered in sweat.

There it was. The reason that he hadn't rejected that letter as a joke as the others had. He had seen this before, everything was exactly the same. And that was why he couldn't make this terrible memories leave him, that's why Joe had reacted so strange over the letter.

He couldn't sleep anymore so he walked down to drink some water. Then he noticed that everything in the living room was like when he left, even the forbidden binder he had wished that he had opened before his dad had seen it was still there. Frank didn't open it, he knew what it was about.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter**** 5**

Frank went upstairs again and carefully he opened Joe's door and sneaked inside. Joe was asleep. He had cried until he fell asleep, the pillows was still wet and his eyes too.

He walked in to his own room again. He actually had been about to wake Joe up, but when he had seen him in that condition, he had decided that it could wait.

He knew Joe had got a great shock today, and he needed to rest.

----

_They had come to the glass stand that hot day and Joe had noticed that his shoelace had gone up and been left behind. Mum and Frank had walked inside without noticing he was missing. _

_When he had knit his shoes and was about to run after them, someone had grabbed him from behind and forced him into a car. His cap had flown of. Everything had gone so fast. While they drove, the three men in the back seat had assisted each other to tie Joe up and throw him on the floor were he couldn't be seen from outside…_

_---- _

Joe woke up. Still refusing to believe it had happened again in less than ten years. He left the bed and walked over to the window. It still rained.

_----_

"You told me it was over!" Joe succeeded to say after a while.

"Did you ever believe this Joe! Had you really expect this phoenix clan to die? You have seen enough the last years to realize this is not possible!"

_---- _

_Eight children was sitting in a__ remote glade in the middle of a forest. They couldn't escape, they was chained to each other. Their kidnappers had just left them there and drove away, new cars had arrived now and then and new kids had been laden out. They had been frees from the ropes or the tape or whatever they had been tied up with and then they had, screaming and crying, been dragged over to the tree were the others was and they too was added to the chain to a foot or a hand. One boy had the chain around his neck. _

_Later in the evening some minibuses arrived. Some men who were dressed like camp school teachers jumped out and came towards the tree. They had let loose the children, one by one and then they had got an injection that had made them fall asleep. They had been carried away to the minibuses and was placed so that they seemed to sleep. _

_When Joe saw what happened he began to pull in the chain in despair. Many other children did the same, but it hadn't help. All of them had been drugged and taken to another place. _

_---- _

_Joe had actually waked up before they had arrived. He couldn't move, but was awake. A black girl with a blue headband in her hair had woke up too and lied there in pain. _

_As the both children discovered another one that wasn't unconscious they began to whisper to each other to find any comfort in everything that had happened to them. They had whispered to each other until the car stopped outside a cottage in the middle of the forest. Then they got scared and pretended to sleep again. _

_The children was dragged out of the car one by one, and they was placed on the floor inside the cottage. One of the men had opened a big trap door in the floor and then they had just thrown them down. _

_Neither Joe nor his new friend Lizzie could stop themselves from screaming when they was thrown down. _

_Down there they met around twenty other kids. They looked scared and unhappy, their clothes were so torn that Joe and Lizzie could see parts of their bodies, they looked like the starving children from Africa they had seen on TV so many times. _

_Suddenly Lizzie screamed. Joe followed her eyes and discovered… a skeleton… _

_Joe and Lizzie grabbed each other in shock. Then another horrible thing happened. One of the other kids, a girl, about 13, ran over to them and tore them away from each other. _

"_Listen, what ever you do, don't hug anyone, don't cry, don't try to comfort anyone don't be sick and especially… don't get sick."_

"_What will they do if we do anything like that" Lizzie screamed to the older girl, she pointed at her own cheek, there was a scratch. _

"_I got this when I tried to hide a boy who had died during the night." _

_---- _

Joe opened the window and looked at the stars. His eyes was filled with tears, it was the first time he had cried over this. In the beginning of the night, before he fell asleep, he had tried to wipe them away but after a while he had given up. Now he tried again. He really wanted to see the stars.

"_I got this when I tried to hide a boy who had died during the night." _

That was one thing he would remember as long as he lived. And that wasn't the worst. The worst was what happened to those who died.

Even if it was late Joe started his computer and logged in on the Internet. He made a search for lost children and went on until he found Lizzie. At least she could be the girl he remembered. She was about his age, she was black, she had big sparkling eyes. But she didn't look like the girl he remembered. This girl had stars in her eyes and shone like the sun. Just like every child should.

Joe printed the information about her and when he waited for it he ran down to take the binder Frank had stolen. He browsed through it and tore out the pages he needed. When he was back in his own room the information of the lost girl Lizzie, had been printed. Joe had quite crying now so he could see the stars without any problems. The boy that older girl had tried to hide was up there, he thought. And Lizzie was up there somewhere too.

Joe began to cry again, he closed the window and put the papers in an envelope. Then he wiped the tears away again and went back to bed. He hid the envelope under his pillow and fell asleep once again.

He had decided to stop crying and do something. And he had very important things to do when he woke up next morning.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter**** 6.**

Ned was standing beside the abandoned car and watched his girlfriend seeking through it. All she had found was some papers and maps but she still continued her seeking. They had done that the entire morning, looking through the car where the police had found the little girl.

Ned didn't help her, actually he began to wonder why he had agreed to take her out there at all.

The entire situation screamed that something wasn't right, and here they was, investigating a crime where their prime suspect was one of their best friends and Nancy wasn't even questioned it... everything was just as it always was, except the little detail that one of them actually hand something to do with the crime.

But Ned still was completely convinced that something was wrong.

Nancy was still looking through the car. She cried at the same time, she cried as she was working.

Ned went back to his own car and picked up a notebook that he began to draw in.

The only thing he really knew was that something was wrong, which must mean that something wasn't what it seemed to be. And if he tried to find out what, if he tried to look at the whole thing with other eyes just a minute, then maybe he could come up with something new.

A few hours later they came back to the Hardy's house. Nancy went straight to the folder and discovered something that almost made her scream out in agony, some of the papers had been stolen.

Ned went in to the kitchen as he thought he would find Frank in there. He didn't, on the other hand he found a note from Joe. _"I have to leave for a while, there's something I have to do"_

Nancy came in to him and noticed the note too.

"No way" she yelled. Ned couldn't stand it anymore.

"Nancy I don't know what you think but Joe is NOT a criminal and that's final. There IS another explanation, I know there is and if you want to continue believe in what this SEEMS to be then, fine, then it is your problem."

After saying that Ned run up to Frank's room where he found him, still in his bed. He woke him up and told him about the map he and Nancy had found, and about the stolen pages in the folder, the best was to tell the truth right away.

Frank didn't seem to have got any sleep at all, he didn't say anything either, he just nodded. And then he got dressed and followed Ned down to see where the map would take him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7.**

Joe had driven through five states without brake, except when he needed to refill. Now he was standing outside the address he had found on the Internet the night before. This was the house were Lizzie's family now lived according to the information.

He stood outside dreading for a long time, he noticed that there was harder to ring the bell than he had thought.

He took out the picture and the information about Lizzie that he had brought with him and just held in his hand.

His heart was beating... he took one more step towards the door, then it was a little easier, he soon stood there in front of the door. Now there was just one thing left... he lifted the hand to ring the bell, it just lifted itself up automatically. Then he hesitated again, took several deep breaths.

"Hello? Who are you?" Joe turned around and caught sight of a long beefy black man around 25 years old. He didn't seem violent, not at all but still Joe couldn't speak. "What are these?" The man asked instead, seeing that Joe was a little nervous and he pointed at the papers Joe had in his hand. Joe sighed, he had done much worse things in his days than show someone some papers, besides it was a good way to begin.

The man looked at the picture of the little girl with a great shock in his eyes and without saying a word. When he finally spoke again he asked:

"Why have you come here!" Joe still wasn't able to speak. He could only stare down on the ground. "Are you from the police?" The man asked then, still trying to help him, then Joe finally got back.

"Eh what? No I'm not but..."

"Yes?"

"I don't know" Joe stuttered, the man just watched him like if he was a dork, he still didn't seem violent. Still Joe had to swallow. Then the man handed back the papers to him.

"My name is Tom" he said. "That girl on the picture is my younger sister. "Then Joe looked at him for the first time. "Do you know what happened to her?" Tom asked and looked straight in Joe's eyes with a sign of hope that seemed to have left him many years ago. Joe just sighed. Then Tom picked up a key, unlocked the door and let him in. Soon, Joe sat there with Tom and Tom's and Lizzie's parents at a table while they looked at the papers Joe had shown them.

"You haven't told us who you are yet!" Tom reminded him after a while of silence. Joe sighed again and then he knew he couldn't wait any longer.

"… I... My name is Joe, I… I was kidnapped at the same time as that girl and we spent a lot of time together..." Then he sighed again, one last time, actually he had to admit that it was a great relief to have that part done. Even if he now had 6 pairs of eyes on him.

"Then you know what have happened to Lizzie?" Her dad asked.

"Is she still alive?" Her mother asked before Joe had got time to answer the first question.

That was the question he had been dreading for the entire journey. And now he just couldn't answer it, the words refused to come. He could see how Lizzie's father nodded in understanding agony before sinking deeper down in his chair again.

"Then she's not alive I guess?"

Joe shook his head in despair, he felt tears on their way. Then he heard Tom speak again.

"So what happened to her?" That question came from very far away. Suddenly Joe began vomiting, and he couldn't stop...


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8. **

Nancy came out from the local policestation. The policeman she had talked to told her that the clan of the extinguished phoenix was an alleged pedophile ring but there was no evidence for it. He had also told her that they used to make raids into the clan's clubhouses in all states, without finding anything. She told the others about these discoveries.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Toni asked. He looked a little irritated by now and wanted something to happen that not only seemed strange.

"What do we know?" Nancy asked straight into the air. Then Frank also got irritated and started rattling off everything.

"First, Joe was kidnapped as a child, then he came back and said that it was not so, then it pops up a phoenix clan who turns out to be a pedophile ring but not really."

"And we know that the children who are rescued from this alleged network does not dare talk about it, even after almost ten years!" Toni continued, referring to Joe. "Which must mean that something with this clan is really horrible, probably they are forced to go through worse things than we can even think of. Things they have to carry for the rest of their lifes."

"That's why dad wants Joe to solve this, he thinks he should be able to put it behind if he can take revenge on them," Frank murmured for himself.

"What?"

"No it was nothing ... what do we have more?"

"We have a map!" Nancy reminden him.

"Yes it's at least something, we follow it!"

They followed the map into the woods and came to what looked like an ordinary cottage. They went in through the door ... and then they knew nothing more.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter**** 9. **

While that happened in the woods Joe and Tom drove around the country in search of more survivors.

The problem was that Joe's memory failed him on too many points, sometimes he remembered a name, but mostly he remembered only a face and it did not help him anymore, it had gone too much time, the little kids faces he remembered was not there any longer, they were adults now and none of the few that they actually managed to track dared to help them.

"You see it?" Sighed Joe after another failed attempt. "It's been so incredibly long time and they are still afraid."

"Or are you overly bold and I'm just stupid to think that I can do something for my little sister who I did not even know has been dead for nine years..." Joe looked up at Tom who drove the car while he rested. Tom had said he needed a rest and when he had refused Tom had just taken a piece of paper which he held up under his nose and then he repeated his order. He had kept the paper until Joe had been clear about what it was, it was proof that Tom was a doctor. During the trip, he told him that he had finsihed his studies last year. He had made it with shining reviews also. He had also told Joe how long he had not slept so precise that Joe suspected that he had spied on him.

"How could I do it, I've only known you for a few hours?" Was the answer to him when he said something about it. Now he sat there and rested as much he could. He had actually slept a few hours in the car Tom told him. Tom had also been forced to remind Joe that he must eat regularly, and Joe smiled to himself as he thought about what his friends back home would say if they knew it. Which they were guaranteed to know in a few hours, he knew Tom would tell them. Somehow Joe felt that Tom, through him, tried to be the big brother he had not got a chance to be for Lizzie. At least they had been the same age at the time.

"Hey Joe!"

"Hm?" Joe looked out throug the window at nothing when Tom called him back to reality, or perhaps present.

"I don't know how to put this, and I ... guess I will not like the answer. But ... is there any possibility that we can find Lizzie's body and bury her? "Joe actually meant to answer him, but when he tried it was like the air went the wrong way, he had to swallow instead and then he just sat in the seat trembling for a long time.

"I thought so!" Tom sighed and stopped the car, he went out and fetched a blanket to put over his new buddy before they went on. Joe said nothing for several hours. Then.

"We can at least do something for her. We have to do it, we must ensure that there will be no more kids like her! "Tom nodded.

"Yes we will!" Then Joe's eyes winked.

"That was about time!" Tom muttererd then he saw it. Then Joe went to sleep, by the medicine that Lizzie brother had sneaked into his food. Tom had calculated that he would be fairly well rested when they arrived.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter**** 10. **

Chet saw Joe get out of the car outside the police station. He knew very well, the look in his eyes. He had seen it before.

_Neither Frank, Chet or someone else wanted to play with Joe anymore, he scared them. Those empty eyes, it was like if he were hypnotized. Like someone had taken his soul. He could not even cry anymore, they had actually tried to play with him but it was like ... like he were dead, like it was just the shell of him who went to school in the morning and came home in the evening ..._

Just like that, Joe looked like now. He had got back that awful, hollow blank eyes. Chet had finally had enough. Frank, Toni and Nancy were in danger and what ever Joe had suffered in the past it was time that he realized it was over, he had survived. He went up towards Joe, and grabbed him.

"Okay Hardy, now I want to know what is wrong and I want to know it now, I have made myself clear?" Joe did not answer, he just couldn't, then Chet lost what was left of his patience, he struck Joe in his face so hard that he fell backwards, right into Tom.

"Chet!" George who had been standing next to him exclaimed.

Joe shook his head slowly to make it clearer.

"I'm sorry but you needed that." Chet said. "They have taken your brother, and Toni and Nancy! That phoenix clan has them. " Then finally the dead in Joe's eyes dissappeared. Chet held out a note for him.

_Stay away!_

"Chet did they told you where they would go?"

"Yep!" Chet smiled at him. "Welcome back! And who is this! "

" Tom, his sister died ... "

"... She was killed by these phoenix jerks?" Chet suggested.

"Something like that," Tom replied. "But that's all I know, for some reason, Joe does not talk so much about just that thing." Chet sighed.

"Then I think we start from scratch, I'd love to hear the whole story from the start before I tell you where they went!" He stared at Joe, it was no use to refuse anymore, Joe could hear it in voice, he didn't even believe that the argument that they didn't have time for this would help him, not even the fact that Frank and the others could be dead when they arrived. He even started to feel sorry for the criminals who were sitting in the police station behind him with a policeofficer who asked questions.

"First question. What is all this with nightmares-something and _I have not been kidnapped_?" Joe sighed.

"There are codes, a kind of password."

"Good, we begin to get somewhere. Then we'll continue. Why do you need a password?" Joe hesitated a long moment.

"You don't understand, these kids do not trust anyone, not even the police. Therefore, we needed a password and therefore still needed, because there are police officers ... that are members of that clan." When he had said that he lowered his head and stared at the ground.

"And what happened to my sister?" Tom asked for the hundredth time.

"... She died!" It was simply impossible to explain.

"Then we continue!" Chet insisted. Neither he nor Tom was pleased with the response they had received this far. "What we ask now ... maybe ... What happened to Tom's sister after she died?"

Chet had managed to find the worst part, he always succeeded when he wanted. Joe sobbed and fell to the ground. That old girl had warned them ... do not die ... none of them had dared to ask why. Suddenly, he noticed that Chet and Tom sat down beside him.

"We end the interview now!" Promised Chet. "It was simply necessary that you started to cry, I'm sorry, but it was. So what should we do now? Are we going to let Frank and Nancy end up like Lizzie?" Joe stood up.

"No, never! Let´s go in to the policestation and ask them to do one of these investigations! "Joe walked in with the self-assured step he always had. Chet smiled, that was the Joe he knew.

"We want to investigate a cottage belonging to the extinct clan of phoenix!" Joe asked the policeman who happened to sit next.

"You can talk to Peterson, he is in charge of the investigations of that clan!" The police was just about to turn around and call for the other one when Joe leaned forward towards him.

Chet had never seen him so angry before. "Peterson may follow if he wants, but he is not alone. You, another policeofficer, my friends and I will go there too" Joe was very definite on this point, neither Chet or Tom remembered how it had happened when he finally got his way but he had. And once they arrived at the hut, and Peterson had gone through everything as usual, Joe had got enough.

"You know why you can not find anything? You're looking in the wrong place! " Then he grabbed the rug that lay on the floor and tore it away. It was inpossible to find the trapdoor if you didn't knew it was there, but Joe knew it so he found it and opened it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey everyone, I'm back and I'll give you the final chapter. Enjoy ^_^**

**Sjeherazade**

**Chapter 11.**

Nancy, Frank, Toni and about ten skinny, starving children looked up at them. Joe shook all over, that hole in the floor ... he thought he would never again have to see ... He turned to the police Peterson again. "You never thought about looking under the carpet, right?" Joe was furious now, he knew that Peterson was one of them, he had known at once when the other police had wanted to send him alone to the clan's headquarters, just as all the police officers who had come to look for him for so many years ago. He really enjoyed this, Peterson would not dare do anything with two real police officers there, police officers who were not members. "What is this notebook?" George suddenly asked and picked the book from the table.

The clan members reacted immediately. They really wanted the book back. But George knew karate so she managed to keep them away from herself, but she dropped the book. Joe threw himself over it and ran into the woods. Peterson and the other clan members chased him. And he did not recognize this forest. It was just to keep running and hope that it was no cliff nearby.

...

He had run almost an hour when he reached a road. In the middle of this was a police car. Joe was very close to run towards it when he remembered something ... Do not trust anyone ... He ran the other way ...

...

He continued running for several hours and finally he came up to the police car again ... he had just been running around in a big circle. He was almost about to turn on again when he heard Nancy's voice. "Joe wait!"

Then he stopped and walked back towards the others, still with the book that contained both the names and addresses of all members throughout the country and abroad and even advertisements of missing children, which they had used to ensure that no children ended up in an area where they risked to be recognized. Later that evening, Fenton Hardy had looked through the notebook in the living room while the others played games to calm themselves down. He smiled. "Joe! This time it's over! "He promised. Joe knew it was true. "It's not over quite yet!" Tom said slowly, and glared at him. "What happened to Lizzie and the others who died down there?"

Joe bit his lip, it was still difficult to speak about it. "I have a question!" Frank aborted before he had even opened his mouth. "If there are so many kids who dies. How come the police never find any bodies? I mean, even the policemen who were not members have been searching for corpses near the huts! "Joe looked up without meeting anyones eyes. Frank's question had actually made it much easier for him to answer both questions, it had even opened the possibility to answer both questions simultaneously. "Because there are no corpses!" He felt that everyone was looking at him, but still he avoided meeting anyone's gaze. "What do you mean?" Nancy asked. "They burned them?" When Frank saw Joe shaking his head, he lost patience.

"I will fix something to eat, you get hungry from sitting trapped underground for hours!" But before he left the room he turned to Joe again, and tried to joke with him, to make it a little easier for him. "How often did you get something to eat down there anyway?" Joe did not think the joke was particularly uplifting, on the contrary ... the tears flowed once again. Then Nancy knew what it was all about ... suddenly everything seemed very clear.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, and then she walked over to Joe, sat down next to him and put her arms around him.

"What!" Frank asked aloud, staring bewildered at Nancy and Joe. Then suddenly Iola had figured the truth out too, which the others could see as her face got pale.

"I think ..." she began. "I think they only got something to eat ... when someone had died!" "Is that right Joe!" Nancy asked quietly. Nobody said anything for a long while. Eventually Tom could not take it any longer.

"They forced you to ... eat each other? ... And Lizzie, Lizzie did you eat? "Joe shook his head. "No ... not Lizzie, I refused. She was too dear to me. We woke up too early when we arrived, before we ended up at that place ... and ... "

" ... That's all we want to know! " Frank stopped him. "And I'm not hungry anymore either ..." Joe seemed really grateful for this. The situation was almost laughable.

"Yes, that was it." Joe explained. "Every time someone died, they took this kid up from the hole and grilled ... and every time someone got sick, just a little bit ... It was what happened to Lizzie. One day she had got enough, she just couldn't take it anymore and she began to scream and cry loudly, and they thought she had a fever ... so they killed her. Sorry for the wording Tom but that was the word they used." Then he got silent. "I'm sorry but I would like to be alone for a while." He said and went to take a walk outside. There was a brief silence after Joe had disappeared.

"A pedophile ring, forcing kids to be cannibals!" Tom almost whispered. "How can anyone even think about doing anything like that?"

"Yes, but now their days in freedom counted" Nancy said. "It will be in the newspapers and on the news and we all have their names. It's over now! "But Toni didn't agree.

"It's not over. Many of the lost children will be lost forever, none of the other prisoners remember them. And Tom's family and the Hardy's and all the other families will be in a lot of pain before all bad memories are gone"

" They will not go away! " Frank muttered. "It really doesn't matter ... at least not for us but ... I think I need some fresh air too"

"Me too!" Tom said. Then it turned out that they all had to gather their thoughts for this story, everyone went out and walked until late into the night.


End file.
